Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Countess of Mar (Crossbench). It was answered on Tuesday, 10 March 2009.

Gulf War Illnesses

Question: My Lords, I declare an interest, as I know only too well from a personal point of view the effects of chronic exposure to organophosphates. Can the Minister explain why the Ministry of Defence and Defra have so much difficulty in accepting causation when a huge amount of literature indicates exactly what enzymes and cells are destroyed, permanently in many cases, by organophosphates? Why will they not look at treating patients with organophosphate poisoning? This is one of the worst problems that the Gulf War veterans have but they are not listened to by their GPs or by their consultants. Gulf veterans could give an awful lot of helpful information to consultants and doctors.

Answer: My Lords, my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in another place recently met the Gulf Veterans Association and the British Legion. It took some time for that meeting to be arranged, but my honourable friend offered to meet, discuss and follow up all these problems. As for organophosphates, it is a question of the level of exposure. There is no doubt at all that the effects of acute exposure are very serious. What are not so clear are the possible effects of low-level exposure, and work is still going on to try to clarify that.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 708 c1057
Session: 2008-09
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Armed forces Chemical weapons Health hazards Iraq-Kuwait conflict Protection Preventive medicine Gulf War syndrome Organophosphates US Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk